Where's the Beach?

This post is courtesy of Mr. Pavement Runner who had the great idea to do a blog post about our "fitness closets." Sometimes it's nice to have an inspired post idea I must say. Mine is more fitness drawers and baskets, but that totally counts right? We do have a closet that houses our bikes and a few fitness items, but mostly everything is crammed into drawers or spilling out of baskets around here. This drawer houses mostly warmer weather running gear and anything I'd wear to workout in at the house or the gym. If it were properly folded and organized, you'd find: 4 pairs of Saucony running shorts - Ignite split short 1 Saucony tank 2 Brooks tanks (one sheer mesh and one black and white) 1 short-sleeved Saucony, 1 short-sleeved Asics and 1 short-sleeved Brooks An assortment of sports bras that include Champion brand, Saucony, Brooks And a host of Nike shorts and tops that I will only wear at home - old, booty shorts ;-) I usually try to cram i...

Oddly Good Run I ended up making Wednesday a rest day. I wasn't necessarily feeling any worse, but decided to just give my body a break. This meant I had time to get to the grocery store. Not the most exciting thing on a Wednesday evening, but necessary. Today was a long long work day. I was looking forward to getting in a run, but was still feeling stuffy and lots of drainage. I went ahead and went for it, meeting my running partner at her office at 4:45 for our usual route. I remember to bring my blinking light this evening since we got stuck in the dark on Tuesday. I should have brought the headlamp she got me actually. We ended up with a great 6-mile run. I have no idea how I did it, but I managed an 8:38 pace. The only downfall (other than really choking on snot and not having water) was dodging lots of traffic and almost getting hit by drivers totally not paying any attention, dodging meandering pedestrians, random potholes, and then a Doberman that darted straight at ...

Friday Long Run This morning I didn't have to set the alarm clock nearly as early as the previous Fridays. The reason was because we had decided to do the long run around the neighborhood rather than drive to the river (15 mins each way). This saved us 30 minutes easily.  Of course, we still woke up just after 5, but we didn't have to rush, which was nice.   I will admit that making multiple changes for a long run isn't always smart. But, sometimes you're lucky. Like today, not only changing up the route in a major way, but trying out new running shorts. I'm cheap. I don't like to spend 40 bucks on running shorts even though I know it's worth it, I use them (a lot), and it makes a huge difference when you buy high-quality running gear.  I have a few pair of Nike shorts, but only 1 worth wearing for longer runs and 1 pair of Brooks that I love but not for 9-10 milers because of potential chaffing. Anyway, 2 pairs of shorts that I keep washing daily mean...

Pizza Surprise Ok, so you already know that last night was Pizza & Pool Friday. But I did something different with the crust that I am really happy about. I randomly decided to add in 2 tsp of nutritional yeast flakes. I was thinking of adding only for taste. What I failed to think about was that it's yeast (duh) so it made the dough rise even more - but this was perfect. The crust turned out super soft. While we liked the recipe as it was just fine, I think adding the nutritional yeast flakes gives me a second option for the crust. Now I have one slightly thinner, firmer and one thicker, fluffier. YUM. Running in My New Kicks Yesterday Jason and I went to one of the running stores so I could get some new shoes. Mine previous shoes were 5 months old, but already causing serious feet and knee pain. I was starting to have IT band problems even, and that's an injury I've never dealt with. I had them check my running gait again in case I was starting to pronate (another...